Prince George's County offers temporary relief as utility bills rise

Prince George’s County residents behind on water or sewer bills can get one-time help of up to $750 through WSSC Water’s Emergency Customer Relief Fund, a limited pool that is first-come, first-served. Residents can call The Salvation Army in Prince George’s County at 301-277-6103 for that aid, or call the county Department of Social Services’ Office of Home Energy Programs at 301-909-6300 for heating and electric assistance; state officials say applicants do not need a turn-off notice to qualify.

The county’s broader safety net is built around low-income households. Prince George’s County’s utility-assistance pages point residents to the Maryland Energy Assistance Program, the Electric Universal Service Program, Arrearage Retirement Assistance and the Utility Service Protection Program, and the state says MEAP pays fuel suppliers and utility companies on a customer’s behalf to help cover home heating bills. County social-services staff can be reached at 301-909-6300, and the office is located at 425 Brightseat Road in Landover.

Councilmember Wala Blegay has been using public forums and direct aid to get the word out. She hosted a Senior Utility Savings Forum on March 13, 2025, at 11 a.m. at the Upper Marlboro Community Center, 5400 Marlboro Race Track Rd., where nearly 200 people had RSVP’d, and Pepco, BGE, WSSC and other providers were scheduled to answer questions about discounts, payment plans, consumer protections and energy-saving tips. The forum reflected a simple reality in Prince George’s County: older residents on fixed incomes are often the first to feel utility shocks and the last to have room in the monthly budget.

The pressure did not stop at workshops. On March 31, 2026, the County Council unanimously approved a resolution asking the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel to investigate utility rate increases, after residents across the county reported electric bills that had doubled, tripled or quadrupled. Pepco, which serves about 610,000 customers in parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, filed in October 2025 for a $133 million annual revenue increase, and the Maryland Public Service Commission said the average residential bill would rise by $11.73 a month under the proposal. Washington Gas also sought higher rates, with regulators saying its proposed design would add about 5.3% to the average residential customer’s total bill.

Blegay said in December 2025 that some residents in her district were being pushed into payment plans and in some cases seeing bills as high as $1,500 a month, a sign that the county’s relief efforts may buy time but not resolve the underlying affordability problem. The county’s patchwork of aid, from WSSC credits to state heating assistance and council-backed scrutiny of rate cases, shows officials trying to blunt the damage while larger utility costs keep climbing.